Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Low-key Arosa in winter It’s not as famous as Interlaken or Zermatt. It’s not as posh as Gstaad. Apart from its most prestigious corners, Davos and St.
Moritz—known simply as themselves as not part of anything larger—the mountainous Swiss canton of Graubünden is largely under the international radar. And they like it that way. “Arosa is not for a first trip to Switzerland,” says Philipp Estermann, the general manager of the Valsana hotel in the center of the village.
He’s speaking specifically of his town, but he could just as easily mean Graubünden in general. “It’s not for the bucket list.” It’s not for bling and Chanel stores.
“It has humility.” He was speaking on a late-August afternoon, when the sky was blue and the weather warm enough for hiking in a light jacket. Arosa was lively but not busy, a welcome change from many of Europe’s tourist hotspots in recent years.
Visiting the Alps in summer is an increasingly good idea, partly as an alternative to the crowded heat of southern Europe but also because the mountain towns—aware that winter snow is getting unpredictable—are ramping up their summertime offerings. The pop-up restaurants, festivals and concerts are great fun, and in some places, fall is even better, with vivid foliage and fewer visitors in the small villages that sometimes get busy. But the main event is still winter.
Things this year will pick up in late November, when .
